St. Landry democrat., 1887-10-15

headS, no CruSneu ankles, uO 4ldCtuIcu
thighs Give us for treatment moderate
sinners, velvet-coated sinners and sinners
with a gloss on 1t is as though a man
had farm of 5000 acres and put all his
work on one acre He may raise never
so large ears of corn, never so big heads
of wheat he would remain poor, The
church of God has bestowed its chief
care on one acre, and has raised splendid
men and women in that small inclosure,
but the field is the world That means
North and South America, Europe, Asia
and Africa, and all the islands of the sea.
1t is as though after a great battle there
were left $4,000 wounded and dying on
the field, and three surgeons gave all
their time to three patients under their
charge. The ma jor general comes in
and says to the doctors, Come out here
and look at the nearly $4,000 dying for
lack of surgical attendance" NO." say
the three doctors, standing there fan
ming their patients, 1--WE have three i'm
portant cases here, and we are attending
to them, and when we are not positively
busy with their wounds, it takes all our
time to keep the flies off, Ir this awful
battle of sin and sorrow, where millions
have fallen on millions, do not let us
spend all our time in taking care of a few
people, and when the command comes: Z:
GO into the world, say practically: NO,
7 cannot go; | have here few choice
cases, and | am busy keeping off the
flies" There are multitudes to-day who
have never had any Christian worker
look them in the eye, and with earnest
ness in the accentuation, say, Come y
or they would long ago have been in the
| kingdom. My friends, religion is either
a sham or a tremendous reality. II 1t be
a sham, let us disband our churches and
| Christian associations. If it be d reality,
then great populations are on the way to
the bar of God untitled for the ordeal,
and what are we doing?
In order to reach the multitude of out
siders we must drop all technicaities out
of our religion. When we talk to people
about the hypostatic union and French
Encycloppdianism and Erastinianism,
and Complutenslanism, we are as lmpol-
itic and little understood as if physi-
clan should talk to an ordinary patient
about the pericurdium, and intercostal
muscle, and scorbutic symptoms. Many
of US come out of the theological semi
naries so loaded up that we take the
first ten years to show our people how
much we know, and the next ten
| years get our people to know as much
as we know, and at the end find that
neither of us know anything as we ought
| to know Here are hundreds and thou
sands of shining, struggling and dying
people who need to realize just one
thing-that Jesus Christ came to save
| them, and will save them now But we
go into a profound and elaborate detini-
ton of what justification is, and after
| all the work there are not, outside of the
learned professions, five thousand peo-
| pie in the United States who can tell
what justification is. | will read you the
definition:
Classification is purely forensic act,
the act of a judge sitting in the forum,
in which the Supreme Ruler and Judge,
who is accountable to none, and who
alone knows the manner in which the
ends of His, universal government can
best be Obtained reckons that which was
done by the substitute in the same man
ner as if it had been done by those who
believe in the substitute and not on ac-
count of anything done by them, but
purely upon account of this gracious
method of reckoning, grants them the
full remission of their sins"
Now, what is Justification? | will
tell you what justification is-when a
sinner believes God lets him off. One
summer in Connecticut | went to large
factory and | saw over the door written
the words, mo Admittance." | entered
and saw over the next door, "No Admit
tance." Of course / entered. got in
side and found it pin factory, and they
were making pins, very serviceable, fine
and useful pins. SO the spirit of eXclu-
siveness has practically written over the
outside door of many church, No Ad-
mittance.' And if the stranger enters
he finds practically written over the sec
ond door: No Admittance," and if he
goes in, over all the pew doors seems
written "No Admittance" while the
minister stands in the pulpit, hammering
out his little niceties of belief, pounding
out the technicalitics of religion, making
pins. In the most practical, common
sense way, and laying aside the nom
essentials and the lard definitions of re-
ligion, 90 out on the God-given mission,
telling the people what they need and
when and how they can get it.
Comparatively little effort as yet has
been made to save that large class of
persons in our midst called skeptics,
and he who goes to work here will not
be building upon another mans founda
ton. There is a great multitude of
them. They are afraid of us and our
churches, for the reason we don't know
how to treat them. One of this
class met Christ, and hear with
what tenderness, and pathos, and
beauty, and success Christ dealt
with him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy
GOD with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind and with all
thy strength This is the first command
ment, and the second is like to this;
namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself There is no other command
ment greater than this" And the scribe
said to him. "Well, master, thou hast
said the truth, for there is one God,
and to love Him with all the heart,
and all the understanding, and
all the soul, and all the strength,
is more than whole burnt offer
ings and sacrifices" And when Jesus
saw that he answered discreetly, he said
unto him: "Thou art not far from the I
Kingdom of God" So skeptic was
saved in one interview. But few Chris.p.,
tian people treat the skeptic in that wayna,,
Instead of taking hold of him with tR.o"
gentle hand of love, we are apt to talIla
him with the iron pincers of eccl.ut;aa
siasticiSm ule